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046 - Book 5 Chapter I · Last Days of Pompeii

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  Speaker 1: The Last Days of Pompeii by Edward George bulwer Lytton
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  Speaker 1: book the fifth chapter one, The Dream of Arbaces, a
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  Speaker 1: Visitor and a Warning to the Egyptian. The awful night
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  Speaker 1: preceding the fierce joy of the amphitheater rolled drearily away
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  Speaker 1: and grayly broke forth the dawn of the last day
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  Speaker 1: of Pompeii. The air was uncommonly calm and sultry, A
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  Speaker 1: thin and dull mist gathered over the valleys and hollows
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  Speaker 1: of the broad companion fields. But yet it was remarked
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  Speaker 1: in surprise by the early fishermen that, despite the exceeding
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  Speaker 1: stillness of the atmosphere, the waves of the sea were
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  Speaker 1: agitated and seemed as it were, to run disturbedly back
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  Speaker 1: from the shore. While along the blue and stateless Sarnus,
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  Speaker 1: whose ancient breadth of channel the traveler now vainly ceased
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  Speaker 1: to discover, there crept a hoarse and sullen murmur as
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  Speaker 1: it glided by the laughing plains and the gaudy villas
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  Speaker 1: of the wealthy citizens. Clear above the low mist rose
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  Speaker 1: the time worn towers of the immemorial town, the red
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  Speaker 1: tiled roofs of the bright streets, the solemn columns of
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  Speaker 1: many temples, and the statue crowned portals of the Forum
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  Speaker 1: and the Arch of Triumph. Far in the distance, the
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  Speaker 1: outline of the circling hills soared above the vapors and
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  Speaker 1: mingled with the changeful hues of the morning sky. The
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  Speaker 1: cloud that had so long rested over the crest of
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  Speaker 1: Vesuvius had suddenly vanished, and its shrugged and haughty brow
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  Speaker 1: looked without a frown over the beautiful scenes below. Despite
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  Speaker 1: the earliness of the hour, the gates of the city
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  Speaker 1: were already opened. Horsemen upon horsemen, vehicle after vehicle poured
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  Speaker 1: rapid lynn, and the voices of numerous pedestrian groups clad
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  Speaker 1: in holiday attire rose high in joyous and excited merriment.
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  Speaker 1: The streets were crowded with citizens and strangers from the
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  Speaker 1: populous neighborhood of Pompeii, and noisily, fast, confusedly swept the
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  Speaker 1: many streams of life towards the fatal show despite the
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  Speaker 1: vast size of the Amphitheater, seemingly so disproportioned to the
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  Speaker 1: extent of the city and formed to include nearly the
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  Speaker 1: whole population of Pompeii itself. So great on extraordinary occasions
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  Speaker 1: was the concourse of strangers from all parts of Campac
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  Speaker 1: that the space before it was usually crowded for several
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  Speaker 1: hours previous to the commencement of the sports. But such
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  Speaker 1: persons as were not entitled by their rank to appointed
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  Speaker 1: and special seats, and the intense curiosity which the trial
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  Speaker 1: and sentence of two criminals so remarkable has occasioned, increased
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  Speaker 1: the crowd on this day to an extent wholly unprecedented.
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  Speaker 1: While the common people, with the lively vehemence of their
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  Speaker 1: companion blood, were thus pushing, scrambling, hurrying on, yet amidst
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  Speaker 1: all their eagerness, preserving as is now the wont with
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  Speaker 1: Italians in such meetings, a wonderful order and unquarrelsome good humor.
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  Speaker 1: A strange visitor to Arbaces was threading her way to
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  Speaker 1: his sequestered mansion. At the sight of her quaint and
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  Speaker 1: primeval garb. Of her wild gait and gestures, the passengers
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  Speaker 1: she encountered touched each other and smiled, but as they
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  Speaker 1: caught a glimpse of her countenance, the mirth was hushed
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  Speaker 1: at once, for the face was as the face of
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  Speaker 1: the dead, and what with the ghastly features and obsolete
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  Speaker 1: robes of the stranger, it seemed as if one long
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  Speaker 1: entombed had risen once more amongst the living. In silence
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  Speaker 1: and awe, each group gave way as she passed along,
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  Speaker 1: and she soon gained the broad porch of the Egyptian's palace.
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  Speaker 1: The black Porter, like the rest of the world, astir
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  Speaker 1: at an unusual hour started as he opened the door
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  Speaker 1: to her summons. The sleep of the Egyptian had been
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  Speaker 1: usually profound during the night, but as the dawn approached,
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  Speaker 1: it was disturbed by strange and unquiet dreams, which impressed
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  Speaker 1: him the more as they were colored by the peculiar
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  Speaker 1: philosophy he embraced. He thought that he was transported to
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  Speaker 1: the bowels of the earth, and that he stood alone
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  Speaker 1: in a mighty cavern, supported by enormous columns of rough
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  Speaker 1: and primeval rock, lost as they ascended in the vastness
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  Speaker 1: of a shadow athwart whose eternal darkness no beam of
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  Speaker 1: day had ever glanced. And in the space between these
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  Speaker 1: columns were huge wheels that whirled round and round unceasingly
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  Speaker 1: and with a rushing and roaring noise. Only to the
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  Speaker 1: right and left extremities of the cavern, the space between
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  Speaker 1: the pillars was left bare, and the apertures stretched away
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  Speaker 1: into galleries not wholly dark, but dimly lighted by wandering
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  Speaker 1: and erratic fires. That meteor like now crept as the
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  Speaker 1: snake creeps along the rugged, dank soil, and now leaped
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  Speaker 1: fiercely to and fro, darting across the vast gloom in
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  Speaker 1: wild gambols, suddenly disappearing and as suddenly bursting into tenfold
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  Speaker 1: brilliancy and power. And while he gazed wonderingly upon the
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  Speaker 1: gallery to the left, thin mist like aerial shapes passed
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  Speaker 1: slowly up, and when they had gained the hall, they
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  Speaker 1: seemed to rise aloft and to vanish as the smoke
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  Speaker 1: vanishes in the measureless ascent. He turned in fear towards
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  Speaker 1: the opposite extremity, and behold, there came, swiftly from the
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  Speaker 1: gloom above, similar shadows, which swift hurriedly along the gallery
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  Speaker 1: to the right, as if borne involuntarily adown the sides
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  Speaker 1: of some invisible stream, And the faces of these specters
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  Speaker 1: were more distinct than those that emerged from the opposite passage.
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  Speaker 1: And on some was joy, and on others sorrow. Some
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  Speaker 1: were vivid with expectation and hope, some unutterably dejected by
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  Speaker 1: awe and horror. And so they passed swift and constantly
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  Speaker 1: on till the eyes of the gazer grew dizzy and blinded,
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  Speaker 1: with the whirl of an ever varying succession of things
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  Speaker 1: impelled by a power apparently not their own. Marchas turned away,
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  Speaker 1: and in the recess of the hall he saw the
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  Speaker 1: mighty form of a giantess seated upon a pile of skulls,
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  Speaker 1: and her hands were busy upon a pale and shadowy wolf.
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  Speaker 1: And he saw that the wolf communicated with the numberless wheels,
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  Speaker 1: as if it guided the machinery of their movements. He
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  Speaker 1: thought his feet, by some secret agency, were impelled towards
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  Speaker 1: the female, and that he was borne onwards till he
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  Speaker 1: stood before her, face to face. The countenance of the
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  Speaker 1: giantess was solemn and hushed and beautifully serene. It was
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  Speaker 1: as the face of some colossal sculpture of his own
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  Speaker 1: ancestral sphinx. No passion, no human emotion disturbed its brooding
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  Speaker 1: and unwrinkled brow. There was neither sadness, nor joy, nor
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  Speaker 1: memory nor hope. It was free from all with which
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  Speaker 1: the wild human heart can sympathize. The mystery of mysteries
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  Speaker 1: rested on its beauty. It awed, but terrified not It
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  Speaker 1: was the incarnation of the sublime. And Arbaces felt the
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  Speaker 1: voice leave his lips without an impulse of his own.
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  Speaker 1: And the voice asked, who art thou and what is
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  Speaker 1: thy task? I am that which thou hast acknowledged, answered,
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  Speaker 1: without desisting from its work, the mighty phantom.
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  Speaker 2: My name is Nature. These are the wheels of the world,
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  Speaker 2: and my hand guides them for the life of all things.
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  Speaker 2: And what said the voice of Arbaces. Are these galleries
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  Speaker 2: that strangely and fitfully illumined stretch on either hand into
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  Speaker 2: the abyss of gloom? That answered, the giant mother, which
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  Speaker 2: thou beholdest to the left is the gallery of the unborn.
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  Speaker 2: The shadows that fled onward and upward into the world
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  Speaker 2: are the souls that pass from the law eternity of
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  Speaker 2: being to their destined pilgrimage on earth, that which thou
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  Speaker 2: beholdest to thy right, wherein the shadows descending from above
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  Speaker 2: sweep on, equally unknown and dim, is the gallery of
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  Speaker 2: the dead. And wherefore, said the voice of arbaces Yon,
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  Speaker 2: wandering lights that so wildly break the darkness, but only break,
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  Speaker 2: not reveal dark fool of the human sciences, dreamer of
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  Speaker 2: the stars, and would be decipher of the heart and
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  Speaker 2: origin of.
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  Speaker 3: Things those lights, but the glimmerings of.
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  Speaker 2: Such knowledge, as a vouchsafe to nature to work her way,
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  Speaker 2: to trace enough of the past and future to give
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  Speaker 2: providence to her designs. Judge, then, puppet, if thou.
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  Speaker 3: Art what lights observed?
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  Speaker 2: For thee arbaces felt himself tremble as he asked, again.
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  Speaker 3: Wherefore am I here?
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  Speaker 2: It is the forecast of the I soul, the precigns
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  Speaker 2: of their Russian doom, the shadow of thy fate, lengthening
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  Speaker 2: into etenity as declines from earth. Ere he could answer,
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  Speaker 2: a bargus felt a rushing wind sweep down the cavern,
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  Speaker 2: as the winds of a giant god borne aloft from
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  Speaker 2: the ground and whirled on high as a leaf in
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  Speaker 2: the storms of autumn. He beheld himself in the midst
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  Speaker 2: of the specters of the dead, and hurrying with them
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  Speaker 2: along the length of gloom. As in vain and impotent despair,
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  Speaker 2: he struggled against the impelling power he thought. The wind
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  Speaker 2: grew into something like a shape, a spectral outline of
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  Speaker 2: the wings and talons of an eagle, with limbs floating
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  Speaker 2: far and indistinctly along the air, and eyes that alone,
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  Speaker 2: clearly and vividly seen glared stonily and remorselessly on his own.
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  Speaker 2: What art thou, again, said the voice of the Egyptian.
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  Speaker 2: I am that which thou hast acknowledged, And the specter
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  Speaker 2: laughed aloud. And my name is necessity to what dost
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  Speaker 2: thou bear me, to the unknown, to happiness or to woe?
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  Speaker 2: As thou hast sown, thou shalt thou reap dread thing.
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  Speaker 2: Not so, if thou art the ruler of life, Thine
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  Speaker 2: are my misdeeds? Not mine? I am, but the breath
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  Speaker 2: of God, answered the mighty wind. Then is my wisdom, vain,
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  Speaker 2: groaned the dreamer.
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  Speaker 3: The husbandman accuses not fate, when having sown thistles, he
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  Speaker 3: reems not calm. Thou hast own crime. Accuse not fate.
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  Speaker 3: If thou reapest not the harvest of virtue.
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  Speaker 2: The scene suddenly changed. Arbaces was in a place of
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  Speaker 2: human bones, and low in the midst of them was
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  Speaker 2: a skull. And the skull, still retaining its fleshless hollows,
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  Speaker 2: assumed slowly and in the mysterious confusion of a dream,
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  Speaker 2: the face of episids and forth from the grinning jaws
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  Speaker 2: that crept a small worm, and it crawled to the
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  Speaker 2: feet of Arbaces. He attempted to stamp on it and
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  Speaker 2: to crush it, but it became longer and larger. With
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  Speaker 2: that attempt, it swelled and bloated, till it grew into
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  Speaker 2: a vast serpent. It coiled itself round the limbs of Arbaces.
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  Speaker 2: It crunched his bones. It raised its glaring eyes and
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  Speaker 2: poisonous jaws to his face. He writhed in vain, He withered,
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  Speaker 2: He gasped beneath the influence of the blighting breath. He
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  Speaker 2: felt himself blasted into death. And then a voice came
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  Speaker 2: from the reptile, which still bore the face of Episodess,
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  Speaker 2: and rang in his reeling.
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  Speaker 4: Thy victim is thy judge the world thou wouldst crush
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  Speaker 4: becomest the sun that devows thee.
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  Speaker 2: With a shriek of wrath and woe and despairing resistance.
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  Speaker 2: Arbaces awoke, his hair on end, his brow bathed and
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  Speaker 2: dew his eyes glazed and staring, his mighty frame quivering
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  Speaker 2: as in infants beneath the agony of that dream. He awoke,
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  Speaker 2: He collected himself. He blessed the gods whom he disbelieved
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  Speaker 2: that he was in a dream. He turned his eyes
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  Speaker 2: from side to side. He saw the dawning light break
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  Speaker 2: through his small but lofty window. He was in the
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  Speaker 2: precincts of day. He rejoiced, He smiled. His eyes fell,
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  Speaker 2: and opposite to him he beheld the ghastly features, the
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  Speaker 2: lifeless eye, the livid lip of the hag of Vesuvi
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  Speaker 2: yes Ha. He cried, placing his hands before his eyes
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  Speaker 2: as to shut out the grisly vision.
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  Speaker 3: Do I dream still? Am I with the dead?
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  Speaker 2: My dear must know thou art with one death like
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  Speaker 2: but not dead. Recognize thy friend and slave. There was
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  Speaker 2: a long silence. Slowly, the shudders that passed over the
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  Speaker 2: limbs of the Egyptian chased each other away, faintlier and faintlier,
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  Speaker 2: dying till he was himself again. It was a dream, then,
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  Speaker 2: said he. Well, let me dream no more, or the
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  Speaker 2: day cannot compensate for the pangs of night.
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  Speaker 4: Woman.
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  Speaker 3: How camest thou here.
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  Speaker 2: And wherefore I came to warn thee, answered the sepulchral
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  Speaker 2: voice of the saga.
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  Speaker 3: Warn me the dream lied? Not then?
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  Speaker 2: Of what peril lesten to me? Some evil hangs over
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  Speaker 2: this fate city. Fly while it be time. Thou knowest
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  Speaker 2: that I hold my home on that mountain beneath which
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  Speaker 2: old tradition saith, there yet burned the fires of the
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  Speaker 2: river of Flegelton, And in my cavern is a vast abyss.
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  Speaker 2: And in that abyss I have of late mark'd a
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  Speaker 2: red and dull stream creep slowly, slowly on, and heard
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  Speaker 2: many and many sounds hissing and roaring through the gloom.
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  Speaker 2: But last night, as I look'd thereon, behold the stream
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  Speaker 2: was no longer dull, but immensely and fiercely luminous. And
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  Speaker 2: while I gazed, the beast that liveth with me and
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  Speaker 2: was cowering by my side, uttered a shrill howl, and
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  Speaker 2: fell down and died. And the slaver and froth were
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  Speaker 2: round his lips. I crept back to my lair, but
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  Speaker 2: I distinctly heard all the night the rock shake and tremble,
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  Speaker 2: And though the air was heavy and still, there were
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  Speaker 2: the hissing of pent winds and the grinding as of
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  Speaker 2: wheels beneath the ground. So when I arose this morning,
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  Speaker 2: at the very birth of dawn, I looked again down
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  Speaker 2: the abyss and saw vast fragments of stone, born black
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  Speaker 2: and floatingly over the lurid stream. And the stream itself
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  Speaker 2: was broader, fiercer, redder than.
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  Speaker 3: The night before.
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  Speaker 2: Then I went forth and ascended the summit of the rock,
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  Speaker 2: And in that summit there appeared a sudden, vast hollow,
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  Speaker 2: which I had never perceiv'd before, from which curl'd a dim,
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  Speaker 2: faint smoke, And the vapor was deathly, and I gasped
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  Speaker 2: and sickened, and nearly died. I return'd home. I took
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  Speaker 2: my gold and my drugs, and left the habitation of
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  Speaker 2: many years. For I remember the dark Etruscan prophecy which saith,
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  Speaker 2: when the mountain opens, the city shall fall. When the
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  Speaker 2: smoke crounds the hill of the parched fields, there shall
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  Speaker 2: be woe and weeping in the hearths of the children
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  Speaker 2: of the sea. Dread master, ere I leave these walls
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  Speaker 2: for some more distant dwelling. I come to THEE as
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  Speaker 2: thou livest. Know I in my heart that the earth
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  Speaker 2: quake that sixteen years ago shook the city to its
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  Speaker 2: solid base was but the forerunner of more deadly doom.
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  Speaker 2: The walls of Pompeii are built above the fields of
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  Speaker 2: the dead, and the rivers of the sleepless hell. Be
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  Speaker 2: warned and fly, which I thank THEE for thy care
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  Speaker 2: of one not ungrateful. On yon table stands a cup
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  Speaker 2: of gold. Take it. It is thine. I dreamt not
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  Speaker 2: that there lived one out of the priesthood of Isis
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  Speaker 2: who would have saved Arbaces from destruction. The signs that
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  Speaker 2: thou hast seen in the bed of the extinct volcano,
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  Speaker 2: continued the Egyptian, musingly, surely tell of some coming danger
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  Speaker 2: to the city, perhaps another earthquake fiercer than the last.
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  Speaker 2: Be that as it may, there is a new reason
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  Speaker 2: for my hastening from these walls. After this day I
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  Speaker 2: will prepare my departure, Daughter of Etruria, whither wendest thou
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  Speaker 2: I shall cross over to herculaneum this day, and wandering
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  Speaker 2: thence along the coast, shall seek out a new home.
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  Speaker 2: I am friendless. My two companions, the fox and the snake,
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  Speaker 2: are dead. Great Hermes, thou hast promised me twenty additional
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  Speaker 2: years of life, Aye, said the Egyptian.
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  Speaker 3: I have promised thee.
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  Speaker 2: But woman, he added, lifting himself upon his arm and
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  Speaker 2: gazing curiously on her face, tell me, I pray thee
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  Speaker 2: wherefore thou wishest to live? What sweets dost thou discover
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  Speaker 2: in existence? It is not life that is sweet, but
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  Speaker 2: death that is awful, replied the hag, in a sharp,
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  Speaker 2: impressive tone that struck forcibly upon the heart of the
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  Speaker 2: vain star seer. He winced at the truth of the reply, and,
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  Speaker 2: no longer anxious to retain so uninviting a companion, he said,
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  Speaker 2: time wanes. I must prepare for the solemn spectacle of
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  Speaker 2: this day. Sister, farewell, enjoy thyself as thou canst o'er
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  Speaker 2: the ashes of life. The hag, who had placed the
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  Speaker 2: costly gift of arbaces in the loose folds of her vest,
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  Speaker 2: now rose to depart, which had gained the door. She paused,
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  Speaker 2: turned back and said, this may be the last time
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  Speaker 2: we meet on earth. But whither flieth the flame? When
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  Speaker 2: it leaves, the ashes wandering to and fro up and
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  Speaker 2: down as an exhalation on the morass. The flame may
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  Speaker 2: be seen in the marshes of the lake below. And
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  Speaker 2: the witch and the magic, the pupil and the Master,
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  Speaker 2: the great One and the accursed one, may meet again.
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  Speaker 2: Farewell out Croaker, muttered Arbaces as the door closed on
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  Speaker 2: the hag's tattered robes, and, impatient of his own thoughts
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  Speaker 2: not yet recovered from the past dream, he hastily summoned
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  Speaker 2: his slaves. It was the custom to attend the ceremonials
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  Speaker 2: of the Amphitheater in festive robes, and Arbaces arrayed himself
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  Speaker 2: that day with more than usual care. His tunic was
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  Speaker 2: of the most dazzling white. His many phebuli were formed
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  Speaker 2: from the most precious stones. Over his tunic flowed a
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  Speaker 2: loose eastern robe, half gown, half mantle, glowing in the
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  Speaker 2: richest hues of the Tyrian dye. And the sandals that
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  Speaker 2: reached half way up his knee were studded with gems
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  Speaker 2: and inlaid with gold. In the quackeries that belonged to
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  Speaker 2: his priestly Genius. Arbaces never neglected on great occasions the
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  Speaker 2: arts which dazzle and impose upon the vulgar, And on
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  Speaker 2: this day that was forever to release him by the
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  Speaker 2: sacrifice of Glaucus, from the fear of arrival and the
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  Speaker 2: chance of detection, felt that he was arraying himself as
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  Speaker 2: for a triumph or a nuptial feast. It was customary
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  Speaker 2: for men of rank to be accompanied to the shows
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  Speaker 2: of the Amphitheater by a procession of their slaves and freedmen,
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  Speaker 2: and the long family of Arbaces were already arranged in
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  Speaker 2: order to attend to the litter of their lord. Only
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  Speaker 2: to their great chagrin, the slaves in attendance on Ione
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  Speaker 2: and the worthy associa as Jaily Tondia, were condemned to
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  Speaker 2: remain at home. Callius, said Arbaces, apart to his freedman,
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  Speaker 2: who was buckling on his girdle, I am weary of Pompeii.
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  Speaker 2: I propose to quit it in three days, should the
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  Speaker 2: wind favor. Thou knowest the vessel that lies in the harbor,
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  Speaker 2: which belonged to Narses of Alexandria. I have purchased it
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  Speaker 2: of him. The day after tomorrow we shall begin to
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  Speaker 2: remove my stores. So soon tis well, Arbaces shall be obeyed,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: and his ward Ione accompanies me. Enough is the morning fair,
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: dim and oppressive. It will probably be intensely hot in
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: the forenoon. The poor gladiators and more wretched criminals descend,
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: and see that the slaves are marshaled. Left alone, Arbaker
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: stepped in his chamber of study, and thence upon the
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: portico without he saw the dense masses of men pouring
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: fast into the amphitheater, and heard the cry of the assistants,
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: and the cracking of the cordage. As there was straining
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: aloft the huge awning under which the citizens, molested by
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: no discomforting ray, were to behold at luxurious ease the
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: agonies of their fellow creatures. Suddenly a wild, strange sound
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: went forth, and as suddenly died away, it was the
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: roar of the lion. There was a silence in the
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: distant crowd. But the silence was followed by a joyous laughter.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: They were making merry at the hungry impatience of the
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: royal beast. Brutes muttered, the disdainful Arbaces are ye less
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: homicides than I am I slay, but in self defense
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: YE make murder pastime. He turned with a restless and
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: curious eye towards Vesuvius, beautifully glow the green vineyards round
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: its breast, and tranquil as eternity lay in the breathless
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: skies the form of the mighty hill. We have time yet,
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: if the earthquake be nursing, thought Arbaces, and he turned
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: from the spot. He passed by the table which bore
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: his mystic scrolls and Chaldine calculations august Art. He thought,
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: I have not consulted thy decrees since I passed the
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: danger and the crisis they foretold.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: What matter?
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: I know that henceforth all in my path is bright
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: and smooth. Have not events already prov'd it away? Doubt away, pity,
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: reflect on my heart, reflect for the future. But two
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: images Empire and Ione. End of chapter one in Book
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: five of the Last Days of Pompeii by Edward George
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: Bulolitten